Pain or irritation associated with medical devices of the urinary tract is a major concern in modern urology. As a specific example, kidney-ureter-bladder (KUB) devices such as ureteral stents are widely used to facilitate drainage in the upper urinary tract (e.g., from the kidney to the bladder).
For example, ureteral stents are used (a) in post-endourological procedures to act as a scaffold in the event of ureteral obstruction secondary to the procedure, (b) following procedures (e.g., ureteroscopies, endourerotomies, endopyelotomies, etc.) for the treatment of ureteral strictures and (c) in other instances where ureteral drainage may need to be facilitated, for example, due to the appearance of kidney stones, among other uses.
However, such stents are commonly associated with pain and discomfort in the bladder and/or flank area after insertion. There are various methods that have been employed to reduce the pain associated with such devices. For example, one way by which pain and discomfort may be minimized is to systemically administer pain-killing drugs to the patient. However, pain-killing drugs are associated with undesirable side effects, particularly with opioid analgesia which are commonly prescribed systemically for this purpose. Moreover, the subject is typically required to bear the pain, trauma and/or expense of going to a physician for stent removal.